The invention relates generally to bale processors and more particularly to a bale processor for all shapes and sizes of bales.
Crop materials, such as straw, hay or other forage are often baled in order to protect the material and make it easy to move and store at an appropriate location. When the material is to be used for feed or bedding, the bales must be transported to the location where they are required, broken apart and distributed in some desirable manner.
Bale processors have achieved widespread use for the shredding of either round or square bales for feed or bedding for animals since they represent a quick and efficient manner for operators to shred and distribute crop materials.
Equipment for producing square and round bales in various sizes is presently readily available, though square balers are becoming ever more popular in view of the convenience of manipulating, transporting and stacking the bales.
Over the years, a number of bale processors have been developed which are capable of loading and processing round bales. U.S. Pat. No. 6,202,950 which issued to Hruska on Mar. 20, 2001, U.S. Pat. No. 6,199,781 which issued to Hruska on Mar. 13, 2001 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,109,553 which issued to Hruska on Aug. 29, 2000 describe a variety of such bale processors; these patents are incorporated herein by reference. These bale processors disintegrate bales and discharge the material either as bedding across an area, or as feed in the form of a windrow or into a feed bunk.
These and other similar bale processors are particularly adapted to process round bales and are capable of carrying one or two large bales to the location where the material is required as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,199,781 noted above. In order to process more then two bales, it is necessary for the bale processor to return to where the bales are stored or to have a second machine with a front end loader bring the bales to the processor.
A further bale processor designed to carry more than one round bale at a time is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,657,191 which issued to Dwyer et al on Apr. 14, 1987. This particular bale processor includes an elongated conveyor pivotally mounted about its wheel axle such that the back end will pivot towards the ground enabling the conveyor to move a number of bales onto itself.
A bale processor developed for loading and processing square bales is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/715,822 filed on Nov. 17, 2000 which corresponds with Canadian Patent Application Serial No. 2,291,319 filed on Nov. 30, 1999 and which is incorporated herein by reference. This bale processor disintegrates bales and discharges the material either as bedding across an area, or as feed in the form of a windrow or into a feed bunk.
Even though bale processor may be able to handle different types of bales, most bale processors have been designed to handle bales of one type or another efficiently. this limits their use, since people may not want to limit themselves to bales primarily of one type or another.
Therefore, there is a need for bale processors which can process bales of various shapes and sizes.
The invention is directed to a crop material processor for disintegrating baled crop material comprising a housing for receiving and containing the baled crop material, the housing having a front wall, a back wall, a left side wall, a right side wall and a bottom, wherein each of the left and right side walls includes a fixed lower section and a pivotably mounted upper section forming a movable wing. The processor further includes a disintegrator having a roller positioned along the length of the housing and mounted to rotate about its own longitudinal axis, manipulator rollers mounted inside the housing substantially parallel to the disintegrator roller, and a discharge opening at the bottom of one of the side walls to discharge material from the processor.
With regard to a detail of the present invention, each of the fixed side walls sections may have a protrusion projecting into the housing substantially level with and parallel to the manipulator roller.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the manipulator rollers are located above the disintegrator roller and each wing is adapted to rotate about an axis positioned generally at the same level as the manipulator rollers.
In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, each wing comprises a back panel having one edge fixed to an axle for rotating the wing. The wing may include an arcuate back panel with a side panel fixed to each end of the back panel. Alternately, the back panel may be constructed from a number of segments fixed in an arcuate shape with a side panel fixed to each end of the segmented back panel. In addition, the wings may further include manipulator rollers mounted so as to be substantially parallel to the manipulator rollers in the housing.
In accordance with another aspect of this invention, the processor includes a mechanism fixed to the axle of each of the wings to lift and lower the wings. The mechanism may include levers fixed and driven by a linear motor such as a hydraulic cylinder or a reversible linear electrical motor.
In accordance with a further aspect of this invention a discharge door is mounted above the discharge opening and adapted to be pivotably raised and lowered for deflecting the crop material discharged from the discharge opening at an angle dependent on the positioning of the discharge door. In addition, the discharge door is coupled to the wing rotation mechanism for preventing the discharge door from being raised when the wings are in a lowered position.
Other aspects and advantages of the invention, as well as the structure and operation of various embodiments of the invention, will become apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art upon review of the following description of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.